girledworld founding team - MADELEINe GRUMMET + EDWINA KOLOMANSKI
girledworld started with a very big problem.
the startup was born at the University of Melbourne's Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship in late 2016.
It was there that Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski met while undertaking a Master of Entrepreneurship with the Melbourne Business School, Faculty of Business and Economics and School of Engineering.
This was a hands on, head-on year of learning and launching fledgling startups that almost broke us.
We launched a sharing economy startup lloci - think Airbnb Trips - (then killed it).
We business modelled an Aged Care on-demand double-sided marketplace (then killed it).
We honed our innovation toolkits in Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Human Centered Design and Business Model Canvas.
And then we deep dove VC fund flows, high-growth start-up case studies and learned to love problems.
But it was when we put our collective brain power toward our Masters Garage Project on the gender gap and innovation drivers in the Future of Work, that we discovered we'd found a problem so big, and began to obsess about it so much, that we turned the solution into girledworld!
SINCE LAUNCHING GIRLEDWORLD, IT'S BEEN QUITE A RIDE.
Startups are like that. They take you up and down a thousand times a day. But we can't believe how far we've come. And where we're going next. And we know we wouldn't be where we are without a thriving village of awesomeness around us.
THIS YEAR BRINGS VERY BIG THINGS.
1. The launch of Future Amp - an on-demand career education platform. Learn more.
2. Virtual keynotes, conferences and online workshops around the country.
3. Industry collaborations and partnerships to help students connect with the real world of work.
4. New team hires to grow our reach to every young woman across Australia.
WE ARE ON TRACK TO REACH 1 MILLION STUDENTS BY 2024.
We are more committed than every to supporting the next generation to step up, start up and skill up for the future of work.
Highlights for our team since we started girledworld include:
2017: 2017 girledworld Summit at the University of Melbourne which made news around the country and united 100’s of girls from 50 schools across Victoria and NSW with global STEM leaders, startup founders and amazing industry role models.
2018: Our girledworld World of Work Summit 2018 at RMIT saw 800 girls and amazing industry leaders from across the planet join us for two days of career development, future of work skill building and immersive Design Thinking workshops.
2019: The 2019 WOW Summits at the University of Sydney (February 2019) and Geelong (May 2019) focused on the changing World of Work and immersed girls in real-world problem-solving, 21st Century enterprise skill-building and hands-on learning!
2020: We delivered Future of Work, Workplace Mentoring & Employability Skills online and face-to-face programs to 1000’s of students with the support of the NSW and Victorian State Governments, Local Learning Employment Networks, industry partners and the education sector.
2021: We continue to engage our community with real-world learning opportunities, and will release You Are Not Your Face - a book for girls, by girls, about where the world’s at.
2022: We have a number of exciting industry-backed virtual programs in the pipeline, and look forward to you joining us, supporting us and being part of our village as we build the next generation of leaders, founders and STEM trail blazers across Australia!
Reach out if you’d like to chat about our programs and partnerships.
MADELEINE GRUMMET & EDWINA KOLOMANSKI
GIRLEDWORLD CO-FOUNDERS
Keep up with our work on our socials!
The Melbourne Entrepreneurship Gala is about celebrating entrepreneurship, and recognising the incredible community who are supporting the emerging talent driving innovation in our ecosystem.
This night is about community and collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and an ultimate belief that together we can make the world a better place.
In 2018, girledworld was selected as one of 5 Victorian showcase startups to take the stage at the 2018 Melbourne Entrepreneurship Gala, which welcomed 800 people to Crown Casino for a night of startup celebration.
Watch the above video to see girledworld Cofounder Madeleine Grummet present girledworld as part of the highlights package.
Co-founder Edwina Kolomanski attended Barnard College, Columbia University in New York in 2012 to undertake Liberal Arts and Pre-medical studies. During her time at Barnard, she was exposed to some amazing opportunities in female leadership and empowerment including being selected for an education forum with Oprah Winfrey and Gloria Steinem. Edwina continues to engage with Barnard Alumni and returns to New York as often as she can!
Co-founder Madeleine Grummet spent May 2018 in San Francisco undertaking STEM diversity research and industry development for our global careers platform build, capturing content with amazing women working at Twitter, Airbnb and Atlassian and participating in Atlassian’s SHIPIT!
Madeleine got hooked on startup when she undertook a Master of Entrepreneurship at the University of Melbourne in 2016, and marinated in Silicon Valley on an Innovation and girledworld Edtech research tour led by Katie Mihell, founding head of Women In Focus CommBank, Chair of the NSW Executive Committee of Springboard Enterprises, and Angel Investor with Scale Investors.
The innovation tour included meetings with key VCs, emerging technology startups, futurists, entrepreneurs and business development managers across Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Companies included Google, Airbnb, Twitter, Tesla, IDEO, Box, Silicon Valley Robotics, Comet Labs, Singularity University, Google Ventures, Bespoke Co-Working SF, Go Daddy and other startup game-changers. Madeleine also completed an IDEO Experience Point Design Thinking Program, and has since completed training with IDEO as a Deign Thinking facilitator, and Inventium as an Innovation Facilitator.
Madeleine also mentors a number of early stage startups and founders at the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, Melbourne Business School, City of Melbourne, Foundation for Young Australians, muru-D and Everwise (Atlassian + Zendesk).